Lost Jacksonville: Gibbs Corporation Shipyards

Formerly referred to as the epicenter of the "Billion Dollar Mile", the shipyards has become known as a place of dead urban development dreams. Before it was a vacant waterfont parcel, the site was the home of one of Jacksonville's largest companies for more than a century.

In 1962, the 54 year old Gibbs Corporation, located at the foot of Kings Avenue and Miami Road (eventaully renamed Prudential Drive), was sold to Jacksonville industrialist Bill Lovett. A few years later, in 1967, George Williams Gibbs passed at the age of 82 and was buried in St. Augustine's Evergreen Cemetery.

Called the "South's least known multimillionaire" by the Times-Union, in 1939, Lovett had sold his controlling interest in the Winn-Lovett Grocery Company to an entity that eventually became Winn-Dixie. He was also the president and chairman of the board of the Piggly Wiggly Corporation.

Lovett simultaneousy purchased Gibbs, Rawls Brothers Shipyards (formerly Merrill-Stevens), and Bellinger Shipyards, in Jacksonville Beach, renaming them all Jacksonville Shipyards, Inc. At the time of Lovett's acquisition, Gibbs was considered the largest ship builder in the South.

Quote

Mr. Lovett hailed from the small Florida town of Monticello, near Tallahassee. For many years, the publicity-shy financier lived in a handsome home overlooking the St. Johns River. The dwelling still stands on Challen Avenue in the historic Jax neighborhood of Avondale. Until late in life, Mr. Lovett drove himself to work in one of two 1966 Cadillacs, arriving at about 10:00 A.M. at a spartan downtown office on East Adams Street. He toiled steadily, breaking only for a meal of peanut butter crackers and buttermilk. The magnate would leave each evening at 6:00, taking home more work. One family member described him as being quite devoted to his enterprises.

In 1969, Lovett sold the Jacksonville Shipyards, Inc. to Fruehauf Corporation. Based out of Detroit, the company was founded by blacksmith and carriage builder named August Charles Fruehuaf. In 1914, Fruehauf invented the "semi-trailer", leading to the establishment of the Fruehauf Trailer Company in 1918.

Called the South Yard, under Fruehauf's ownership, it was their largest shipbuilding facilitiy featuring a 20,000-ton capacity floating dry dock, machine shops, main office building, new construction yards with two ship ways and eight mobile gantry cranes. Combined with the North Yard (Jacksonville Shipyards), St. Johns Yard and Mayport, Fruehauf employed 3,000 in 1971.

However, the days of shipbuilding on the Southbank were coming to an end. By the mid-1970s, Fruehauf shut down the Southbank's old Gibbs yard and focused on expanding and upgrading their shipyard on the Northbank.

When Mayor Hans Tanzler resigned to run for governor of Florida in 1978, city council president Jake Godbold was appointed to take his place for the last six months of the term. Elected in 1979 and again in 1983, Godbold's administration labeled the 1980s as "The Billion Dollar Decade" for downtown redevelopment. The old Gibbs shipyard became a major focus of those redevelopment efforts.

By 1982, the shipyards had been replaced with a riverfront mixed-use development featuring a 322-room Sheraton Hotel and waterfront retail/office complex anchored by Chart House and Crawdaddy's Restuarant.